With the colour dropping out after the first hard frost of the year, many anglers found it more difficult to contact with the rivers bream and skimmers that have been showing throughout the last few weeks.

Saturdays open match saw 22 fish, with the bream becoming increasingly tightly shoaled due to the colder conditions. While this meant for a slightly more patchy match than usual, the fish were nonetheless still there to be caught on certain pegs, with another fantastic weight of nearly 30lbs coming off the Oak Tree.

3rd Graham Evans (Vale Royal Angling) 14-5-0Despite the forecast rain, Sundays winter league was badly effected by the frost and saw the colour and flow all but disappear, much to the dislike of those fully expecting a bumper bag of bream! As it transpired roach with bonus skimmers were the order of the day, with straight lead and maggot tactics dominating. Interestingly, the frost seems to have finally brought the "proper" roach into the urbanised lengths of river, (namely the Boats and Hunts Lock) perfectly emphasised by the several near pound fish caught! 45 fished.1st Darren Hogg (Edgeley Sports) 12-6-0, roach and skimmers, maggot, straight lead, peg 268